Load supporting pallet

ABSTRACT

An elongated continuous storage and shipping pallet is made up of separable sections so that a selected number of tiers of cartons may be taken from a stack by lift trucks without manual handling.

United States Patent 1191 Webb Oct. 9, 1973 LOAD SUPPORTING PALLET 2,012,535 8/1935 Hen-old 10s/s1 x 2,662,711 12/1953 Lapham 108/58 X [75] Invent wens Web", Berkeley C3115 2,970,797 2/1961 Desbois 108/56 [73] Assignee: Freling E. Baker, San Francisco, 2,591,629 4/1952 Spalding 229/51 DB m: 2,918,242 12/1959 Olwette et a1. 108/51 [22] Filed: Apr. 14, 1971 l Primary Examiner-Paul R. G1ll1am [21] pp 133,795 Attorney-Fryer, Tjensvold, Feix, Philips & Lempio [52] US. Cl. 108/51 51 Int. Cl B65d 19/00 [57] ABSTRACT [58] Field of Search 3) An elongated continuous storage and shipping pallet is made up of separable sections so that a selected number of tiers of cartons may be taken from a stack by [56] References Cited lift trucks without manual handling.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,434,434 3/1969 Horton 108/58 4 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures LOAD'SUPPORTING PALLET BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to article handling and pertains more particularly to improved pallets for mechanicalhandling of cartons and the like.

Many types of products, manufactured as well as grown, are packaged in cartons or similar packages before shipment to the consumer. Such packaging serves to segregate the products into measurablequantities as well as to facilitate handling. In other instances, the packaging serves to protect the goods from damage or contamination. A number of different materials and shapes are used for such packaging.

Because of the incompatable dimensions of presently used transport vehicles and storage areas, a great deal of the cartons and packages must be presently handled by hand. Each package may require transfer between numerous vehicles and storage areas before it reaches its final destination. Thus, if each individual package is transferred by hand between each vehicle and storage area, the cost can become enormous. Furthermore, premiums must normally be paid to workers when cartons are stacked above a certain height. This further increases the expense involved in shipping such goods to the consumer.

A certain degree of manual handling can be eliminated' by stacking such packages onto pallets which are then manipulated by a lift truck into storage areas or onto transport vehicles. Several different types of pallets are available. However, numerous advantages and disadvantages are associated with the various types.

For example, wooden pallets are normally ideal structurally and normally permit air circulation where needed, but are expensive to construct and maintain, and are space consuming. Fiberboard or paperboard sheet pallets are inexpensive and consume very little space, but are lacking in structural rigidity.

The problem of structural rigidity in fiberboard sheet pallets has been largely overcome by recent developments in lift trucks such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,141,399, issued July 28, 1964, to R. F. Foster. Such trucks are now equipped with pullers having clamps or grippers for gripping the edge of a sheet pallet and pulling it onto closely spaced forks or a wide load supporting platform. A pusher is then employed for pushing the load from the platform.

Such sheet pallets are illustrated, for example, in Canadian Pat. No. 564,185 issued Oct. 7, 1958. These types of pallets are generally constructed of a corrugated paperboard and are becoming increasingly popular because they are inexpensive and consume very little space. They can normally be discarded at the end of the trip because of their low cost.

Another disadvantage of existing fiberboard pallets exists where certain products requiring air circulation are being transported or stored. Existing fiberboard pallets greatly reduce, and in most instances eliminate aircirculation between the packages in a storage area or a transport vehicle.

These prior known sheet and other pallets, however, have a number of other disadvantages. One major dis advantage is that they are normally constructed of a given size and must be used to transfer loads between vehicles and storage areas that are of varying sizes. Thus, for example, a 4 foot square pallet would be suitable for an 8 foot wide truck bed or a 12 foot wide storage area, but would not be'suitable for a 10 foot wide railway car. The 2 foot space in the railway car would have to be either unused or loaded by hand. This diminishes the advantages of such pallets because it leaves unused space and permits the load to shift.

Hand stacking of the load of packages in a space such as the 10 foot railway car also enables the packages to be selectively placed and interlocked'at the discretion of experienced labor. Such selective placing of the packages permits vacant spaces to be substantially eliminated and the load to be more firmly stacked to eliminate shifting during travel. However, a load prepared in this manner must also be unloaded by hand labor.

For these reasons, the loading and unloading of many of such products is done with manual labor. This results in increased transportation and distribution costs because of increased time and labor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a novel pallet and method of using same that overcomes the above disadvantages of the prior art.

Another object of my invention is to provide novel pallet construction that permits free circulation of air between tiers of packages.

A further object of my invention is to provide a novel pallet construction that permits selective automatic sizing of loads from already loaded pallets.

Another object is to permit loading and unloading of any size load supporting area by means of lift trucks.

In accordance with my invention, a pallet is provided with separable support sections for supporting the tiers of cartons of a load. Any number of tiers of cartons can then be selected and removed from a given stack of cartons without disturbing the remainder of the stack.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects and advantages will become apparent to those of skill in the art from the following description when read in conjunction with the following drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a pallet constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the construction of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an alternate embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the embodiment of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a further embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the embodiment of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a still further embodiment of the present invention in a folded position;

FIG. 8 is an end view, in section, of a railway car loaded with use of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a top plan view of a partially loaded truck or dolly using pallets of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a side view of a pallet such as used in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a side view of a loaded dolly of FIG. 9 with a lift truck in the process of unloading a portion of the load.

FIG. 12 is an elevational view of a loaded pallet in conjunction with a gripping mechanism.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawings and more specifically to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a pallet constructed in accordance with the present invention, comprising a plurality of thin substantially rectangular sections with a suitable shearable joint establishing connections between the adjacent sections to make a continuous pallet of indeterminate length. Each of the sections is provided with a plurality of tabs 12 which extend to and is suitably connected such as by overlapping and gluing to the adjacent section. Each of the sections 10 may be constructed of any suitable material such as fiberboard or paperboard and will have a dimension that is compatible with cartons or packages to be handled. For example, the length of each section looking from or along the horizontal as seen in FIG. 1, for maximum versatility, would be approximately the width of a package that is to be handled. The width or vertical dimension as seen in FIG. 1 would then preferably correspond to the length of forks or support platform of a lift truck to be used.

The adjacent sections 10 may be closely spaced for use in situations where circulation between tiers of packages will obviously not be needed but is constructed with slots 14 between the sections where air circulation may be needed. The shearable or separable connection formed by tabs 12 is preferably constructed to have a shear strength that is substantially less than the shear strength of the adjacent sections 10 but has a tensile strength that is somewhat greater than the shear strength of the tab or connection. The tensile strength, of course, would be determined by forces acting along arrows l6 and 18 and the shear strength would be established by forces acting along arrows 20 and 22. The purpose and advantage of this shear joint will be more fully described below.

The construction illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be formed from a continuous strip of suitable material simply by stamping out a series of suitably spaced slots 24 for establishing the length of the sections 26 and 28. This leaves a shearable joint between the sections 26 and 28 established by means of a plurality of strips or portions 30 extending between the sections. The slots 24, of course, will be of a suitable width to perform their intended function.

Another embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 in which a plurality of identical rectangular sections 32 are suitably connected or attached together by a plurality of connecting elements 34 of any suitable material to serve the purpose. These elements, for example, may be wire staples. Again, as in previous embodiments, the space 36 may be provided if desired.

These individual sections 32 are also suitable for an alternate construction wherein the connecting member 34 is omitted. In other words, there is no actual physical connection between the sections. This would provide individual sections for supporting separate tiers on the common platform of a lift truck. While such a construction does not have the stability of a pallet having the sections physically connected, it would be feasible in many applications. A cooperative connection between the sections would exist by means of a lift truck platform having a width sufficient to support a plurality of the sections. Thus, by the term pallet, herein, I intend to cover a pallet comprising a plurality of tier supporting sections, whether physically connected or not.

A further embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 7 wherein a plurality of pallet sections 38 are connected together by strips of tape 40 and shown stacked together in a bundle. Many well known packaging tapes are suitable for this purpose. Such tapes are known for their high tensile strength and yet can be easily torn by forces applied transverse to the surface thereof. Further illustration of this embodiment is shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.

The use of pallets constructed in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG. 8 in conjunction with a loaded railway car in which circulation of cooling air is established. A railway car 42 is suitably equipped to provide air circulation to the car. For example, suitable inlet means 44 are provided for introducing, for example, cooled air into the car above the cargo such that the air then flows such as indicated by the arrows down through and between the cartons or packages 46 to a supporting floor 48 which has suitable slots or openings to permit flow into a passageway 50 below the supporting floor. The circulating air then flows to either side of the car where it flows along passageways 52 and 54 formed between supporting side walls 56 and 58 spaced between the vertical walls 60 and 62 of the railway car.

The boxcar is loaded with a first stack 64 which comprises six adjacent tiers 66, each tier comprising a plurality of superimposed horizontal rows 68. The first stack 64 as illustrated is made up of a first group of six tiers two rows high resting on a first pallet which rests on the supporting floor 48 of the car. A second group of six tiers four rows high rests on the first group of packages on another pallet 72.

A second stack of packages 74 is positioned on the opposite side of the car and consists of three tiers 76 of packages, each of which consists of six superimposed horizontal rows 78. This second stack 74 comprises a first group of three tiers two rows high resting on a first pallet 80 and a second group of three tiers four rows high resting on a pallet 82 resting on the top of the first mentioned group. The space between the two stacks 64 and 74 may be then filled with a suitable inflatable dunnage bag 84 to prevent shifting of the cargo.

As can be readily seen from this illustration, each of the tiers 66 or 76 rest directly over an individual section of a pallet such that the space between the packages or cartons, as viewed vertically between each tier, is left open to permit complete circulation of air therebetween. Looking at pallet 72, for example, there is shown a pallet made up of individual sections 86 having spaces 88 therebetween coinciding with the spaces or the division between the tiers 66.

Thus the non-restricting characteristics of the present pallets are illustrated.

The loaded car of FIG. 8 illustrates a further feature of the present invention which will be more fully discussed and illustrated in FIGS. 10 through 12. This feature is the selectability of the desired size of the pallet at least as to one dimension. That is, the number of tiers to be handled may be selected from one, up to the maximum width of the lift truck handling the loading or unloading operation. This permits ready selection of the desired number of tiers to fit the particular vehicles which are being loaded. This is a very important feature because of the varying sizes of transport vehicles which are used to transport cartons from a factory, or to transport fruits and vegetables from the field or even from a processing plant. This problem is further compounded by the different sizes of railway cars themselves in terms of width, length and height.

The illustrated car of FIG. 8, for example, is of a width to take nine tiers of cartons or packages with a space left between in which the dunnage bag 84 is placed. The arrangement of the load, for example, is such as to illustrate having been loaded by means of a lift truck from a prior support area or vehicle. For example, a load on a previous vehicle could have been loaded onto a continuous pallet as shown in FIG. 10. In FIG. 9 there is illustrated a truck or dolly 90 having a flat support surface or bed 92 on which is loaded or first placed a continuous pallet such as that described in FIG. 7 wherein a plurality of sections 38 are connected together by strips of tape 40. Individual packages or cartons 94 are stacked on each of the pallet sections to form a plurality of tiers each having sufficient layers to achieve the desired height. The pallet is preferably positioned on the bed 92 of the dolly 90 in such a manner that an edge 98 extends beyond the edge of the dolly bed so that it may be gripped by the gripper of a lift truck and the support platform may be inserted under the edge thereof. The packages 94 are then preferably positioned such that this edge 98 extends slightly beyond one end to facilitate handling by a fork lift truck. A shearable tape 99 may be strung along a layer between the tiers to lend stability to a stack of cartons.

After the dolly or truck 90 has been loaded as shown in FlG. 11, a suitable number of tiers as are needed to load the second vehicle are selected, such as three tiers as shown. The lift truck 100 is positioned such that its load receiving platform 102 has the left edge thereof disposed between the selected tiers and a rest of the load. The load receiving platform 102 is then inserted or positioned under the selected tiers in the usual manner and begins lifting the load. This lifting action tears or shears the connecting tapes 40 and 99 and thus separates the pallet between two sections 38. This selected load is then taken by the lift truck 100 and deposited in the transport vehicle as in FIG. 8 or in a suitable storage or receiving area as desired. Thus, in this manner, it is seen that with the present invention a lift truck may be used for loading and unloading vehicles and filling storage spaces in a selected manner not heretofore possible. The lift truck vehicle may select any number of tiers of cartons or packages from one up to the number needed to fill the support platform. Thus, in this manner, the lift truck may be used to fill any available space in a transport vehicle or storage area by selecting the number of tiers needed without limitations imposed by at least one of the dimensions of the pallet.

As an example, the area between the spaced parallel walls could be filled in a number of different manners depending upon the width of the cartons and the space between the walls and the width of the load supporting platform of the lift truck used. Suppose that the lift truck platform is equal to the width of stack 64, or 6 cartons. The car, however, is approximately one and one-half times the width of the lift truck platform. The

car is loaded simply by selecting a stack corresponding to stack 74 and putting it into place first. This leaves a remaining space approximately the width of the platform, and stack 64 such that a full lift truck load may be placed into and fill the remaining space.

In a similar manner, if the space to be filled will take several lift truck loads, a partial load may be placed in any position in the loading sequence so long as the final space will take a final load.

FIG. 12 illustrates a pallet 102 supporting a load made up of cartons 104 resting on a surface 106 of a support platform of a suitable transport vehicle or storage area. A pallet 102 is illustrated as having an end 108 extending beyond the edge of the tier of cartons 104 and turned up so as to more readily receive the forward edge of a lift fork or support platform 110 and be available for gripping by suitable grip means 112.

A vehicle or storage area which has been loaded or filled in accordance with the present invention may also be unloaded in a similar manner simply by reversing the above steps. Thus, a lift truck may be advantageously used to unload as well as load vehicles, warehouses and similar structures in accordance with the present invention.

The present invention also makes it possible to prepare an initial load, whether loaded by hand or not, to be unloaded by means of lift trucks. Thus, the present invention makes it possible to eliminate a great deal of the manual labor normally required in transporting and storing goods.

While I have illustrated my invention with respect to particular embodiments, it is to be understood that changes and modifications may be made in the illustrated structure and manner of using the same without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A selectively sizable pallet for use in handling loads of cargo, said pallet comprising a plurality of adjacently positioned substantially flat rectangular sections disposed in side by side relation, each section having a planar lower support surface and edges defining a fixed dimension corresponding to a length and width of a load to be selected, each of said sections having portions spaced from portions of an adjacent section a sufficient amount to permit circulation of air between the load, flexible means interconnected between said sections extending along lines at angles to said edges, said means having a high tensile strength and a low shear strength whereby the sections may be easily separated by severing the said fiexible means between a pair of adjcent sections in response to one of said sections with a load thereon being lifted with respect to the adjacent sections.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said flexible means is a tape.

3. The invention of claim 1, wherein said flexible means is an integral portion of said section extending to and attached to an adjacent section.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein said portion is a tab glued to an adjacent section. 

1. A selectively sizable pallet for use in handling loads of cargo, said pallet comprising a plurality of adjacently positioned substantially flat rectangular sections disposed in side by side relation, each section having a planar lower support surface and edges defining a fixed dimension corresponding to a length and width of a load to be selected, each of said sections having portions spaced from portions of an adjacent section a sufficient amount to permit circulation of air between the load, flexible means interconnected between said sections extending along lines at angles to said edges, said means having a high tensile strength and a low shear strength whereby the sections may be easily separated by severing the said flexible means between a pair of adjacent sections in response to one of said sections with a load thereon being lifted with respect to the adjacent sections.
 2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said flexible means is a tape.
 3. The invention of claim 1, wherein said flexible means is an integral portion of said section extending to and attached to an adjacent section.
 4. The invention of claim 3 wherein said portion is a tab glued to an adjacent section. 